1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a hinge assembly, and in particular, to a hinge assembly for a signal cable to pass through.
2. Related Art
At present, there are a variety of designs of portable computers. To reduce the volume of the notebook computer and increase portability, the thickness of the portable computer is becoming steadily reduced. How to properly arrange the electronic components in a reduced usable space, is a significant challenge for portable computer designers.
In a portable computer, the hinge assembly is used for pivotally connecting the main unit and the display screen. In a conventional design concept, the hinge assembly is only used for connection, and therefore, for the arrangement of all electronic components, only the internal space of the computer case is taken into consideration while the mutual interferences between the electronic components and the hinge assembly need to avoided.
Conventional signal cables are wound around the pivot from the main unit base and are then connected to the display screen, which is already inapplicable to ultrabooks or similar portable products. The pivot not only needs to become lighter and thinner with the overall volume, and the size also needs to become smaller, while the torsion and rigid structure still need to be kept. Therefore, in the prior art, a method in which a part of the signal cables are hidden in the hollow axial space of the pivot is developed.
In the conventional technology, the spindle of the hinge assembly is designed hollow, and the signal cables pass through the hollow spindle. However, the volumes of the connectors at two ends of the wire of the signal cable are usually bigger than the pipe diameter of the hollow spindle, so that during the assembly process the wire of the signal cable is placed through the spindle first and then the connectors are joined with the two ends of the wire through welding or in other manners. However, signal cables and pivot assemblies are usually provided by different suppliers, so the assembly requires the following two manners. In the first manner, a site is added in the assembly factory to place the wire through the spindle, the connectors are then joined with the two ends of the wire, and subsequent assembly is performed. In the second manner, the assembly factory obtains the hinge assembly and the signal cables and contracts with component suppliers to place the wire through the spindle and join the two ends of the wire to the connectors, and then send the components back to the assembly factory to perform the assembly. However, the first manner makes the assembly process too cumbersome and results in low-efficiency assembly, while the second manner has the troubles of secondary delivery and is not cost-effective.